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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Today a look at the last two verses of Psalm 137, which take us back to the central themes of the Office of the Dead. Pope Benedict comments on them:

“After calling into question national leaders worldwide, not only those of that time but of all times, the person praying returns to his personal prayer of praise. Turning his gaze to his future life, he implores God for help also for the trials that existence may still have in store for him. And we all pray like this, with this prayerful person of that time. He speaks in concise terms of the "anger of the foes", a sort of symbol of all the hostilities that may spring up before the righteous person on his way through history. But he knows, and with him we also know, that the Lord will never abandon him and will stretch out his hand to save and guide him.”

St John Chrysostom notes on this verse that the promise here is rescue, not freedom from trouble in the first place! He says:

“He did not say, You will get rid of the tribulation, but You will give me life while remaining in the very midst of troubles, you will succeed in rescuing me after falling into the dangers themselves - something really remarkable and unexpected, when harm is pressing and circumventing, to establish the one beset by it in a state of security…You will be able, in other words, he is saying, both to rescue me while in the midst of troubles, and also to humble and repress those seething and raging and breathing fire…that is, your power, your strength: God is well equipped with ways and means, and capable of leading to salvation from a desperate situation.”

The Lord redeems us

The final verse of the psalm reminds us that we can never merit salvation, but only be granted it through God’s goodness and mercy, and thus Christ’s saving sacrifice.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The first four verses of Psalm 137 talk of an individual praising God.

In verses 5 to 7, the focus becomes more universal, with the psalmist foreseeing the spread of the worship of God across the whole world. They have a particularly Advent flavour, with their allusion to the kings of the earth coming to worship the true God, as the three kings of the East symbolised at Christ's birth. And to keep the reference to the kings of the earth in perspective, the psalm reminds us that God is close to the humble, but far from the proud and mighty, a sentiment echoed in the Magnificat:

5 Confiteántur tibi, Dómine, omnes reges terræ: * quia audiérunt ómnia verba oris tui.May all the kings of the earth give glory to you: for they have heard all the words of your mouth.

6. Et cantent in viis Dómini: * quóniam magna est glória Dómini.And let them sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.

7. Quóniam excélsus Dóminus, et humília réspicit: * et alta a longe cognóscit.For the Lord is high, and looks on the low: and the high he knows afar off.

The Latin

The first phrase of verse 5 echoes the opening verse of the psalm, but now with the verb in the third person rather than the first person singular:

Confiteántur tibi, Dómine = let them/may they [the kings of the earth] give thanks to you/glory to you O Lord

These verses should, I think, remind us that our duty is not just to worship God ourselves, though that clearly comes first, but also to spread his message to all, and to be joined to all in his worship. But there is a catch to this injunction, namely the importance of preserving humility. Here is the verse echoed in the Magnificat (Luke 1:52):

altus, deep (=deceitful), high (=proud)longe, adv. far off, at a distance; as a substantive with a and de, afar off, from afar. cognosco, gnovi, gnitum, ere 3, to know, see, learn, perceive, be come acquainted with.

He exalts the humble

Pope Benedict XVI has commented on this psalm that:

“Thus, one discovers that God is certainly "exalted" and transcendent, but he looks on the "lowly" with affection while he turns his face away from the proud as a sign of rejection and judgment (cf. v. 6). As Isaiah proclaimed: "For thus says he who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One: On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed" (Is 57: 15). God therefore chooses to take the side of the weak, victims, the lowliest: this is made known to all kings so that they will know what their option should be in the governing of nations. Naturally, this is not only said to kings and to all governments but also to all of us, because we too must know what choice to make, what the option is: to side with the humble and the lowliest, with the poor and the weak.”

2. In conspéctu Angelórum psallam tibi: * adorábo ad templum sanctum tuum, et confitébor nómini tuo.I will sing praise to you in the sight of the angels: I will worship towards your holy temple, and I will give glory to your name.

2. In conspéctu Angelórum psallam tibi: * adorábo ad templum sanctum tuum, et confitébor nómini tuo.I will sing praise to you in the sight of the angels: I will worship towards your holy temple, and I will give glory to your name.

Mercy and truth and used here, though some translations change this to ‘mercy and faithfulness’ or other permutations in an effort to more closely reflect the shades of meaning in the Hebrew. But ‘mercy and truth’ have the weight of the Christian tradition behind them in both East and West, a combination of words used in the Latin of many of the psalms and elsewhere in Scripture, with many icons depicting the angels of mercy and truth going out before God, or alternatively as in the miniature above, as two of the four 'daughters of God' (with peace and justice).

The first two verses of Psalm 137 are about the speaker’s commitment to praising and adoring God with all his might. These two verses talk about why.

The first, and overarching reason, is that God exercises his mercy and truth towards us. St John Chrysostom comments that he is giving praise for his restoration to grace:

“What does this mean? I shall give thanks to you, he is saying, for enjoying great care: it is not for my own good deeds that I have gained repossession of my homeland and sight of the Temple, but from your mercy and your lovingkindness. For these I adore you, for these I confess to you, that though worthy of punishment and retribution and rightly deserving to languish constantly in foreign parts you have given me swift return…”

St Augustine takes the point further, and suggests that in this we must imitate God’s mercy and truth in our dealings with others:

“These also which You have given to me, do I according to my power give to You in return: mercy, in aiding others; truth, in judging. By these God aids us, by these we win God's favour. Rightly, therefore, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. No other ways are there whereby He can come to us, no other whereby we can come to Him.”

A name above all others

The next few phrases are really elaborations of the forms that God's mercy and truth takes. The second part of verse three points out that despite his position so far above us, God has reached down through history to aid his people. St Augustine says:

“He has magnified His holy Name over Abraham. Of Abraham was born Isaac; over that house God was magnified; then Jacob; God was magnified, who said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then came his twelve sons. The name of the Lord was magnified over Israel. Then came the Virgin Mary. Then Christ our Lord, dying for our sins, rising again for our justification, Romans 4:25 filling the faithful with His Holy Spirit, sending forth men to proclaim throughout the Gentiles, Repent ye, etc. Matthew 3:2 Behold, He has magnified His holy Name above all things.”

Strength to the soul

And the third reason given for our praise is God’s aid to us individually in times of trouble, again a form of his mercy, or loving kindness. St Robert Bellarmine explains verse 4 as follows:

“From the fact of your having so magnified thy holy name, I ask you to hear me whenever I shall put my wants before you; for your Holy One has said, "Whatever you ask of the Father in my name he will give you." …What I earnestly beg of you is to multiply, which means to increase, not the number of my years, nor my wealth, nor my children, nor anything else of the sort; "but strength in my soul," so as to enable me to resist my evil desires, to bear all crosses with patience, to tread in the path of justice without fatigue, to offer violence to the kingdom of heaven, that thus I may ultimately come to him, "whom thou hast magnified."

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The psalm propers for the First Sunday of Advent in both the Ordinary (in theory at least; in practise they are mostly displaced by five hymn sandwich and responsorial psalm) and Extraordinary Forms draw on two psalms: Psalm 24 (25), which expresses our spiritual longing for Christ and need for repentance to prepare for his coming, and Psalm 84, which is a psalm of thanksgiving, anticipating our deliverance.

I want to take a brief look today at the first of these, Psalm 24, not least because it particularly fits my November theme of the Office of the Dead, in which it is said at Matins.

Psalm 24: The Introit, Gradual and Offertory

Selections from the first four verses of Psalm 24 are used in the Introit, Gradual and Offertory for this Sunday, but in fact the overall theme is perhaps best summarized by its last verse, which asks God to ‘Deliver Israel, O God, from all his tribulations’. It is an alphabetical psalm in the Hebrew, and it touches on many of the key themes of Advent, including our need for guidance, forgiveness of sins, and salvation.

The text I’ve given above for the Latin is the (Clementine) Vulgate, but in fact the liturgical text uses an older version of the Latin (the ‘Itala’) in places, substituting ‘expectant’ in verse 2 for ‘sustinent’ and ‘notas fac’ for ‘demonstra mihi’ in the Gradual text.

The Gospels and the psalm…

In the Extraordinary Form, the psalm text has a direct and obvious links to both the Gospel and the Epistle. St Luke Chapter 21 includes the instruction to ‘lift up your heads for your redemption is at hand’; while Romans 13:11-14 tells us to arise from sleep, put on the armour of light that withstands all enemies, and walk in the ways of the Lord.

In the rotating texts of the Ordinary Form, this year the connections between the texts are far less obvious, save perhaps for the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, which talks about those who wait for the Lord…

In conspéctu Angelórum psallam tibi: * adorábo ad templum sanctum tuum, et confitébor nómini tuo.I will sing praise to you in the sight of the angels: I will worship towards your holy temple, and I will give glory to your name.

The duty of thanksgiving

Most of the psalms of this Office have focused primarily on the help that we need from God as we face death, and this is certainly a theme in this psalm too.

But this psalm adds a new element, asking us to remember to give thanks for all the good things God has given us in our lives, even as it draws to a close, and reminds us once again that we are not alone, but connected already to the heavenly court through the invisible presence of the angels.

Verse 1: An offering of thanksgiving and praise

Confitébor tibi Dómine = I will give praise to you O Lord

The deponent verb confiteor has two possible meanings in Latin: to praise or give thanks, as best fits this context; or to acknowledge one’s guilt (hence the ‘confiteor’ in the Mass).

St Augustine comments that most people know of the confession of sin, but few attend to the confession of praise. I suspect the revere is more true these days, but his remarks on this are still worth reading:

“But first I remind you, that the term confession in Scripture, when we speak of confession to God, is used in two senses, of sin, and of praise. But confession of sin all know, confession of praise few attend to. So well known is confession of sin, that, wherever in Scripture we hear the words, I will confess to You, O Lord, or, we will confess to You, immediately, through habitually understanding in this way, our hands hurry to beating our breast: so entirely are men wont not to understand confession to be of anything, save of sin. But was then our Lord Jesus Christ Himself too a sinner, who says in the Gospel, I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth? He goes on to say what He confesses, that we might understand His confession to be of praise, not of sin, I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. He praised the Father, he praised God, because He despises not the humble, but the proud. And such confession are we now going to hear, of praise of God, of thanksgiving.”

in toto corde meo = with all my heart

The heart (cor cordis) is often used in Scripture to mean the mind and the soul. Totus is an adjective meaning the whole, entire. What is being offered here is the person’s whole being, focused on thanksgiving.

quóniam audísti verba oris mei = because you have heard the words of my mouth

This phrase seems to have dropped out of the Hebrew Masoretic Text for some reason, but it is retained in the neo-Vulgate, probably because it links up nicely to verse 3.

The second verse is a crucial reminder that when the Church militant here on earth prays, it does so in union with the Church Triumphant, represented by the angels invisibly present at our liturgy. In the context of the Office of the Dead it is also a reminder, perhaps particularly of the aid available from our own guardian angels. Curiously, although the Greek uses the word ‘messenger’ (angel) here, the Hebrew Masoretic Text talks about ‘the gods’ instead, particularly jarring in the context of the Temple!

psallam tibi = I will sing praises to you

psallo, ere 3 to sing to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument,; to sing the praises of God.

St Benedict, in his Rule, particularly focused on this second verse in his instructions on the correct performance of the Divine Office, urging us to be conscious of the presence of the angels while saying it:

“We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that "the eyes of the Lord are looking on the good and the evil in every place" (Prov. 15:3). But we should believe this especially without any doubt when we are assisting at the Work of God. To that end let us be mindful always of the Prophet's words, "Serve the Lord in fear" (Ps. 2:11) and again "Sing praises wisely" and "In the sight of the Angels I will sing praise to You". Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in sight of the Godhead and of His Angels, and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way that our mind may be in harmony with our voice.”

But as well as absorbing the new grammar, it is also worth doing some revision. So I strongly suggest going through and working out the case of some of those high frequency nouns we've previously noted, such as anima (soul), gloria (glory) and Dominus (Lord) on the various occasions they recur. Look out too, for an important example of a third declension noun, nomen, nominis, n name:

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Through November I've been looking at some of the psalms of the Office of the Dead, and today I want to give a short introduction to the last psalm of Vespers of the Dead, Psalm 137(138), before embarking on a verse by verse look at it.

A psalm of thanksgiving and a last plea for help

This hymn of thanksgiving alternates between the personal concerns of the speaker, and a call for the praise of God to be spread amongst all nations.

Like most of the other psalms of this Office, it has a strong focus on the protection God offers in times of trouble, and preservation from the final death. God is to be worshipped, it argues, for his truth and mercy, for his help in times of tribulation and aid against enemies, and for his aid to the poor and marginalized. In the Office of the Dead, the last phrase of the last verse ‘the works of Thy hands O Lord, forsake not’ is used as the antiphon.

The psalm is also said at Wednesday Vespers in the Benedictine Rite (Thursday in the Roman).

Psalm 137: The text

First listen to be being read and/or or sung through in Latin so you can hear how it should sound:

Next, in order to get a sense of the overall meaning, have a quick look at the English. Here it is in the Coverdale translation so you can enjoy the lovely Anglican chant version sung for the Pope during his UK visit at Westminster Abbey in 2010 (warning: this is not a Catholic translation, and I will comment on some of the differences between it and one's based on the Vulgate and Neo-Vulgate as we go along in this mini-series):

I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart;
even before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy Name,
because of thy loving-kindness and truth; for thou hast magnified thy Name, and thy word, above all things.
When I called upon thee, thou heardest me, and enduedst my soul with much strength.
All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord; for they have heard the words of thy mouth.
Yea, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, that great is the glory of the Lord.
For though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly; as for the proud, he beholdeth them afar off.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, yet shalt thou refresh me; thou shalt stretch forth thy hand upon the furiousness of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
The Lord shall make good his loving-kindness toward me. Yea, thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; despise not then the works of thine own hands.

Pope Benedict XVI on Psalm 137

Pope Benedict XVI gave a General Audience on this psalm back in 2005. Here is an extract from his talk by way of introduction:

“Psalm 138[137], the hymn of thanksgiving that we have just heard, attributed by the Judaic tradition to the patronage of David although it probably came into being in a later epoch, opens with a personal hymn by the person praying… We must be sure that however burdensome and tempestuous the trials that await us may be, we will never be left on our own, we will never fall out of the Lord's hands, those hands that created us and now sustain us on our journey through life. As St Paul was to confess: "he who has begun the good work in you will carry it through to completion" (Phil 1: 6). Thus, we too have prayed with a psalm of praise, thanksgiving and trust. Let us continue to follow this thread of hymnodic praise through the witness of a Christian hymn-writer, the great Ephrem the Syrian (fourth century), the author of texts with an extraordinary poetic and spiritual fragrance: "However great may be our wonder for you, O Lord, your glory exceeds what our tongues can express", Ephrem sang in one hymn and in another: "Praise to you, to whom all things are easy, for you are almighty". And this is a further reason for our trust: that God has the power of mercy and uses his power for mercy. And lastly, a final quote: "Praise to you from all who understand your truth" (General Audience, Wednesday, 7 December 2005)

If you are interested in using this psalm series to help brush up or learn your Latin, you can find some notes to aid you on this here.

Or you can go straight to the first part of the phrase by phrase notes on the psalm here.

In the previous psalm of this hour, the speaker has become restless with the realization that he is far from God. Here he asks for grace to accompany him on his journey towards him. The key theme of this psalm is the protection God offers the pilgrim – the verb custodire, meaning to guard or protect, is used six times in the course of eight verses, and combines with other several other synonyms for God’s help. It emphasizes God’s constant protection: day and night; our comings and goings. And it echoes in many ways, the petitions of the Lord’s prayer, asking that we not fall into temptation (our foot not be moved, v3), that we protected from all evil (v7), and that we not be led astray (v5&8).

The key verse in the context of the Office of the Dead is, I think, the last one: our coming in (to this world) and goings out from it are under God’s loving watch, and he will help us not to stumble at the end.

A setting to listen to

And finally, in terms of listening to it, although this blog is generally devoted to promoting the use of the Latin, this is one of those psalm settings for which we should embrace the 'Anglican patrimony' in my view!

Monday, November 21, 2011

I’ve devoted November to looking at Vespers of the Office of the Dead. So far we’ve looked at Psalm 114 in some detail.

Because I’ve looked in some detail elsewhere at the three middle psalms of Vespers of the Dead, Psalms 119, 120 and 129, I’m not going to give them the verse by verse treatment here, but instead just an overview.

Heu mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est! habitavi cum habitantibus Cedar; multum incola fuit anima mea. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar: My soul has been long a sojourner.

Cum his qui oderunt pacem eram pacificus; cum loquebar illis, impugnabant me gratis.With them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.

Our earthly pilgrimage draws to a close…

Psalm 119 (120), like Psalm 120 and 129, is one of the gradual psalms or pilgrim songs.

In the daily Office, it serves as a reminder that we are all on a journey towards heaven.

In the context of the Office of the Dead, the realization that the exile has been living too long far from his true home takes on a more immediate application to the situation of the dying soul. In this context, it teaches us that a key step for our spiritual progress is to detach ourselves from earthly things and remember that our true hope is not the extension of this life, but to dwell in heaven.

And it is surely a plea for protection from all the temptations as we make this final journey that might prevent us from final perseverance.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Over the last few weeks I've been looking at Psalm 114, the first psalm of Vespers of the Dead.

One of the other psalms from this Office features heavily in today's propers in the Extraordinary Form, namely Psalm 129 (130), Out of the Deep. The first verse of Psalm 129, actually gets two guenseys in the Propers of the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, as the Alleluia and the Offertory.

Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it. For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord. My soul has relied on his word: My soul has hoped in the Lord. From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities

In the context of the Mass, the psalm clearly looks forward to the dark days of the end of the world (Out of the deep) but also suggests the promise of redemption in the Second Coming.

The medieval exegetes, Dom Gueranger points out in Liturgical Year, saw it as particularly referring to the promised conversion of the Jews in the last days. It is therefore not altogether surprising therefore that this is one of those psalms where the (pre-Christian) Septuagint Greek (and thus Vulgate) and the (medieval) Hebrew Masoretic Text are in places very different, in ways impossible to reconcile by looking for alternative readings of the Hebrew. In particular, from verse 4 onwards, the Hebrew puts much more emphasis on fear of God, and omits two references to the hope of the Christ’s redemption.

Psalm 129 is one of the most heavily used psalms liturgically and quasi-liturgically, showing its applicability not only as a collective hymn, but also as an individual prayer. As well as featuring in Vespers of the dead, it is one of the Gradual psalms and one of the seven penitential psalms. In this context, Cassiodorus suggests that in this psalm, “as penitent he cries from the depths to the Lord, asking that the great power of the Godhead be experienced by the deliverance of mankind.”

You can find some notes I've previously written on this psalm in the context of the penitential psalms, starting here. And you can find notes on it in the context of Tuesday Vespers here.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Once again a post designed to aid those using this psalm series to learn or brush up their Latin - others can skip quickly past!

Grammar - the subjunctive mood

If you’ve been following the Simplicissimus introduction to Latin course (to download the materials see the link in the side bar on Latin resources) on a one unit a week basis since I started this psalm series (or have done some fast catching up), you should be up to Unit 6, which introduces the subjunctive mood.

There aren’t actually any examples of the present subjunctive in Psalm 114, but in the last post I gave the alternative formulation of the concluding verse from Psalm 55, which does use the subjunctive:

ut pláceam (second conjugation) coram Deo in lúmine vivéntium, or ‘so that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living’.

You might also recall the last verse of another psalm we have looked at in this series, Psalm 22:

Et ut inhábitem (first conjugation) in domo Dómini, in longitúdinem diérum = And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.

Vocabulary – the body

Psalm 114, like many of the psalms, makes reference to a number of body parts, so it might be helpful to bring together a number of the key words used in the psalms to refer (anthropomorphically) to God, to enemies, or to the speaker:

corpus –oris n body (doesn't actually occur in the pslams, but used in the Mass and NT in many places)caro, carnis, f flesh; man, mankind; the body; every living being

caput, itis, n. the head,

Ps 3: et exáltans caput meum = and the lifter up of my head.Ps 22: Impinguásti in óleo caput meum – You have anointed my head with oil

Placébo Dómino in regióne vivórum.I will please the Lord in the land of the living.

In fact these two verses are almost identical in sentiment to Psalm 55:13, which says:

Quóniam eripuísti ánimam meam de morte, et pedes meos de lapsu: ut pláceam coram Deo in lúmine vivéntiumBecause you have delivered my soul from death, my feet from falling: that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living.

Looking at the Latin

Quia erípuit =for he has freed/rescued

In Psalm 114 the verb is in the third person; in Psalm 55, the second - Quóniam eripuísti = For you have freed

ánimam meam de morte = my soul from death

óculos meos a lácrimis = my eyes from tears [omitted in Ps 55]

One can perhaps see an allusion to this phrase in Revelation 21:4, where the description of heaven includes “ he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."

pedes meos a lapsu = my feet from falling

Psalm 55 changes the preposition to de, but not meaning

Placébo Dómino = I will be pleasing to the Lord

The Masoretic Hebrew Text , followed by the neo-Vulgate here has ‘I will walk in the presence of the Lord’ – but the two expressions are equivalent. The idea of walking in God’s ways is used fairly frequently this way (see Psalm 1 for example). In Psalm 55, a third structure is used, a purpose clause (ut +subjunctive), to suggest that God freed him in order that he can please him: ut pláceam coram Deo, or ‘that I may please in the sight/presence of God’

in regióne vivórum=in the land of the living

The land of the living stands in contrast to Sheol/hell, the kingdom of the dead. In this context it can mean either earth or heaven. Psalm 55 changes this to ‘in the light of the living’.

St Robert Bellarmine’s commentary on Psalm 55 provides a nice summation of the multiple levels of meaning of these verses: ‘you have delivered my soul from death’, he explains, refers firstly to God saving the psalmist from the death of the body in this world on many occasions; ‘my feet from falling’, he sees as preserving him from falling into sin in the face of temptations, that is from death of the soul.

He concludes:

"That I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living;" in the light of this life, which those who are dead enjoy not; and in the light of grace, which infidels and sinners have not; that I may, at length, come to the light of eternal glory enjoyed by those who alone, and properly speaking, can be classed among the living. These words are applicable to Christ, who, by his Resurrection, was delivered from the death of the body, without any possibility of his ever again being subject to it, or to any suffering, and lives and reigns on the right hand of the Father, "in the light of the living." Amen.

In this light, we can understand St John Chrysostom’s explanation that the verse means that death is something to be welcomed if we are in a state of grace, not feared:

“…What to others seems deserving of tears merits prayer in his view, and what to others is deserving of joy and satisfaction merits groaning in his view. Is it not deserving of groaning to be in a foreign country and dispatched far from our homeland? Is it not deserving of joy to put in at a tranquil haven and be admitted to the city on high whence pain, distress and groaning have fled? And how does this affect me, a sinner, you say? Do you see that it is not death that is the cause of grief, but a bad conscience? So stop being a sinner, and death will be something desirable for you.”

“The literal meaning has to do with an awesome liberation, some kind of relief and deliverance. If you were to take it in an anagogical sense, however, you would be able to speak of departure from this life as redemption, and call it rest. It is, in fact, release from all unexpected troubles, and he is subject no longer to uncertainty, a victim of insecurity, having now taken his departure with solid hope.”

Turning the soul to its rest can be taken as meaning either literally, acceptance that the end of this life has come, or more generally turning away from the death of the soul that comes from sin. Cassiodorus, for example, suggests that

“The soul which is alienated from the Lord should sing this in company with the prophet; the sheep which had wandered and had merited a return to the pens, borne on the shoulders of the Protector, should also sing it. So should the son who was dead and has come to life again, who had been lost and was found. So should the devoted people who have been redeemed by His precious blood, and have through the Lord's generosity gained the attainment of the rest for which they longed. So the prophet urges his soul to turn to the Lord, from whom come to him both peaceful rest and the removal of sins.”

quia Dóminus benefécit tibi = for the Lord has dealt kindly with/dealt bountifully with/rewarded with you

benefacio, feci, factum, ere 3, to do well; to do good to, to deal kindly with, to deal bountifully

The reward spoken of can take two forms: God’s delivering him from heath through healing of his illnesses; or the reward of heaven.

I have fought the good fight…

St Basil comments:

“The brave contestant applies to himself the consoling words, very much like to Paul, when he says: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice. These things the prophet also says to himself: Since you have fulfilled sufficiently the course of this life, turn henceforth into thy rest, 'for the Lord has been bountiful to thee.' For, eternal rest lies before those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, a rest not given in payment for a debt owed for their works, but provided as a grace of the munificent God for those who have hoped in Him. Then, before he describes the good things there, telling in detail the escape from the troubles of the world, he gives thanks for them to the Liberator of souls, who has delivered him from the varied and inexorable slavery of the passions.”

All too often these days we hear of the need for Catholics to develop an “adult faith”, which seems to be code for a supposed right of dissent from the Church’s teachings. Yet in reality, a truly adult faith is the exact reverse of this: a truly adult faith is sufficiently robust to accept the ‘hard sayings’ of the faith with docility; it is one that is fed on the meat of orthodoxy, not the sour milk of modernist-liberalism.

And this verse stands as a reminder of the path to such an adult faith: we must be humble, so that we realize our total dependence on God, and shed the illusion that we can control our lives and our world. St John Chrysostom comments:

“…'It is good for me that you brought me low so that I might learn your right judgements’. The grounds for thanks here are twofold: he allowed him to fall into danger, and he did not abandon him once fallen. Each is in some fashion a kind of favor, and the former not less than the latter but even greater, strange to say: while one rescued him from danger, the other imbued his soul with sounder values.”

Similarly, St Augustine gives the image of the father correcting a son, and the surgeon:

“For how should not The Lord, who keeps little ones, scourge those whom, when of mature age, He seeks to be heirs; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? Hebrews 12:6-7 : I was in misery, and He helped me. He helped me, because I was in misery; for the pain which the physician causes by his knife is not penal, but salutary.”

Only once we have been through this process of purification through hardship can we accept the means God uses to free us from the delusions, false doctrines, and temptations that surround us. As St Basil the Great comments:

“When I was turned and became as a little child and received the kingdom of heaven as a child and through innocence brought myself down to the humility of children, the Lord, the keeper of little ones, since I was humbled, he delivered me.”

To show what good hope he had in God, he assigns a reason for having had such hope, because "The Lord is merciful and just, and our God showeth mercy;" the Lord is merciful, because he goes before sinners, and inspires them with the idea of penance and prayer, "For he first loved us," as the apostle says. He is also just, for he lets no one go unchastised, as St. Paul says, "He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," and he pardons those who do not pardon themselves, and not only forgives their sins, but makes them his heirs.

Phrase by phrase:

O Dómine = O Lord

líbera ánimam meam = free/deliver (imperative) my soul

miséricors Dóminus et justus =the Lord is merciful and just

et Deus noster miserétur = and our God has pity (note the deponent)

The Revised Standard Version translates the verse as "O LORD, I beseech thee, save my life!" Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.

The concept of God’s mercy dealt with by this verse is a rich one. St Basil the Great comments:

“Everywhere Scripture joins justice with the mercy of God, teaching us, that neither the mercy of God is without judgment nor His judgment without mercy. Even while He pities, He measures out His mercies judiciously to the worthy; and while judging, He brings forth the judgment, having regard to our weakness, repaying us with kindness rather than with equal reciprocal measurement…Mercy is an emotion experienced toward those who have been reduced beyond their desert, and which arises in those sympathetically disposed. We pity the man who has fallen from great riches into the uttermost poverty, him who has been overthrown from the peak of vigor of body to extreme weakness, him who gloried in the beauty and grace of body and who has been destroyed by most shameful passions. Though we at one time were held in glory, living in paradise, yet, we have become inglorious and humble because of our banishment; 'our God showeth mercy’ seeing what sort of men we have become from what we were. For this reason He summoned Adam with a voice of mercy, saying: 'Adam, where are you?' He who knows all things was not seeking to be informed, but He wished to perceive what sort he had become from what he had been. 'Where are you?' instead of 'to what sort of a ruin have you descended from so great a height?'